Method of treating cotton-seed.



hurrah smit s PATENT o rruon.

ALFRED w. FRENCH, OF PIQUA, OHIO.

METHOD OF TREATING sorrow-snub.

No Drawing.

T 0 all "10. 1am it may concern:

Be it knownthat I, ALFRED W. FRENCH, a citizen of the United States,residing at Piqua, in the county of Miami and State of Ohio, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Methods of Treating Cotton-Seed, of which the following is a specification.

In the treatment of cotton seed preparatory to expressing the oiltherefrom it has been quite commonly the practice to run the cotton seedmeats containing a greater or less proportion of hulls through thecrushing rolls and then into the cookers. The yield of oil is greater ifthe meal is cooked a longtime, say from one hour to an hour and a half,or even two hours, and it is an advantage, from one standpoint, to havean excess of moisture in the early stages of the cooking, moisture beingadded if the meal is lacking in the requisite amount thereof. Themoisture in conjunction with the heat softens the oil cells andincreases the yield of oil. This excess moisture is howeverobjectionable when the meal contains hulls, since it also softens thehulls, and causes the extraction of more or less of the coloring mattertherefrom, which makes both the oil and the cake dark. \Vhile the meatsfree from hulls will stand considerable cooking without objectionablediscoloration, the hulls, if cooked long or with much moisture, willdiscolor the meal.

The object of this invention is to prepare cotton seed by an economicaland eiiicient method whereby the meats, freed from hulls, are partiallycooked in the presence of ample moisture, whereas the hulls are cookedfor a shorter period of time and with less moisture, so as thereby toobtain the maximum yield of oil without discoloring either the oil orthe cake.

According to this method, the hulls are separated from the meats beforethe meal is cooked and the meats are partially cooked by themselves withconsiderable moisture. Then after the meal has passed through itsinitial sweat, and after a considerable p0rtion of the excess moisturehas been removed, the hulls are introduced into the partially cookedmeats and the mixed meats and hulls are further cooked together.

The hulls and meats can be separated at any time before the cooking, butpreferably the separation is effected before the meats are crushed, andthe meats and hulls are Specification of Letters Yatent. i Patnfed Dec.22, 1914:.

Application filed July 6. 1914. Serial No. 849,338.

ground or crushed separately.- By separately-crushing or grinding thehulls after they are separated from the meats and-before cooking them,the fine meats which are retained'with the hulls are crushed, so thatthe oil will be readily extracted from these. In this way the oilcontained in any meats which remain with the bulls is not lost, and itis not so necessary to have the hulls absolutely free from meats. Thisis an advantage since it is difficult or impractical to completelyremove all of the hulls from the meats which are to be cooked alonewithout also removing some of the meats with the hulls. The crushed orfine hulls are also preferable in the cake.

The material is preferably cooked in continuous cookers of the typewhich comprise several, say four, cooking kettles or chambers operatedin such a way that the material passes more or less continuously or' atregulated intervals and in regulated quantities from one kettle to thenext. The crushed meats, free from hulls, are introduced into the firstkettle and pass through the first two kettles where they are cooked withample moisture, whereas the crushed hulls together with any meatscontained therein, are introduced preferably into the third kettle, soas to be mixed and cooked with the meats after the latter have passedthrough and been partially cooked in the first two kettles withoutarresting the continuous operation of the cooker. Thus after the meatshave passed through the initial sweat and a considerable portion of themoisture has been removed, the meats and hulls are further cookedtogether. In this way the coloring matter will not be extracted from thehulls to an objectionable extent, and the meal will retain its brightyellow color, while the yield of oil will be practically the same as inthe prior methods, in which the meats and hulls are cooked together forthe entire period. The cake therefore remains brighter but neverthelesscontains a sufficient amount of hulls to insure the requisite porosityfor an easy escape of the oil and to make a marketable cake.

I claim as my invention:

1. The herein described method of treating cotton seed preparatory toexpressing the oil therefrom, consisting in separating the hulls fromthe meats, partially cooking the meats by themselves, and thenintroducing hulls into the meats without arresting the continuouscooking operation and further cooking the meats and hulls to-' the oiltherefrom, consisting in hulling the.

seed, separating the hulls from the meats and reducing the meats t0meal, partially cooking the reduced meats by themselves With excessmoisture, and then, after the meats have passed through the initialsweat and a portion of the moisture, has been removed, introducing hullsinto the meats and further cooking the meats and hulls together.

3. The herein described method of treating cotton seed preparatory toexpressing the oil therefrom, consisting in separating the hulls fromthe meats, separately reducing theseparated meats and hulls, partiallycooking-the meats by themselves and then introducing the reduced hullsinto the cooker With the meats and further cooking the meats and hullstogether.

4. The herein described method of treating cotton seed preparatory toexpressing the oil therefrom, consisting in separating the hulls fromthe meats, crushing the free meats by themselves, separately crushingthe hulls together With any meats contained therein, partially cookingthe free meats by themselves, and then introducing the crushed hullswith any meats contained therein into the free meats and further cookingthe material.

Witness my hand, this 30 day of June, 1914.

M. M. WHrrL oK, C. B. UPTON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents.

Washington. D. G.

